This invention relates to the manufacture of ice, and particularly to a small residential or domestic maker of clear ice cubes.
Typical domestic or residential ice makers form ice cubes by depositing water into a mold attached to an evaporator and allowing the water to freeze in a sedentary state. Such an approach results in clouded ice cubes as a result of the entrapped air and impurities.
It is known that forming ice by flowing water over a freezing surface will eliminate the clouding associated with sedentary freezing. Such a flowing water process has typically been used in commercial ice cube makers. One example of the flowing water approach is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,439 issued Dec. 24, 1996 to Schlosser et. al. In that patent, water is flowed over a vertically disposed evaporator plate whose surface defines pockets. The water flows over the surfaces of the pockets and an ice cube is formed in each pocket. The ice cubes are harvested by passing hot vaporous refrigerant through the evaporator in place of the cold refrigerant.
The present invention incorporates such a flowing water system in a small unit for residential or domestic uses.